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Sunday, December 31, 2017

SUNDAY REVIEW / HISTORY OF THE STRAND, THE MAGAZINE THAT CHAMPIONED SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE


MODERN EDITION
Editors’ Note: In the first issue of the Strand Magazine, published in December 1998, English writer Chris Willis wrote an article for that inaugural issue looking at the history of the Strand. It is reprinted here in its entirety. Chris Willis passed away at the age 43 in 2004.  See end of blog for links to The Strand.

GUEST BLOG--By Chris Willis--Not many magazines can count Queen Victoria and Winston Churchill among their former contributors. However, both contributed to the Strand at different times during its history. It was after all, one of the best and most popular magazines of its time.

For sixty years (1891-1950), The Strand Magazine was a popular source for the best in fiction, featuring the works of some of the greatest authors of the 20th century including Graham Greene, Agatha Christie, Rudyard Kipling, G.K.Chesterton, Leo Tolstoy, Georges Simenon and, of course, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Founded by George Newnes in 1890 and edited by H Greenhough Smith from 1891 to 1930, the Strand aimed at a mass market family readership. The content was a mixture of factual articles, short stories and serials most of which were illustrated to some extent. Despite expense and production difficulties, Newnes aimed at having a picture on every page — a valuable selling point at a time when the arts of photography and process engraving were in their infancy. “A monthly magazine costing sixpence but worth a shilling” was the slogan the publicity-conscious Newnes used to advertise the Strand – which was half the price of most monthlies of the period.

When the first Sherlock Holmes short story –”A Scandal in Bohemia”– was published in the July 1891 issue of the Strand Magazine, circulation rose immediately. Arthur Conan Doyle had already published two full-length Holmes stories, “A Study in Scarlet” and “The Sign of Four,” neither approaching the success of the short stories which were to follow. Indeed, when “The Sign of Four” was published in book form in 1890, the Athenaeum commented that “Dr. Doyle’s admirers will read the little volume through eagerly enough, but they will hardly care to take it up again.” However, within two years, the combination of Sherlock Holmes and the Strand had made Conan Doyle one of the most popular authors of the age. Fifty-six Holmes stories appeared in the magazine from 1891 to 1927, many of them illustrated by Sidney Paget’s now famous drawings.

VINTAGE EDITION
In his autobiography, Memories and Adventures, published in 1924, Doyle revealed that he had written the Holmes short stories with a view toward establishing himself in the Strand. He recalled that “A number of monthly magazines were coming out at that time, notable among which was the Strand, under the very capable editorship of Greenhough Smith. Considering these various journals with their disconnected stories it had struck me that a single character running through a series, if it only engaged the attention of the reader, would bind that reader to that particular magazine … Looking around for my central character, I felt that Sherlock Holmes, who I had already handled in two little books, would easily lend himself to a succession of short stories.”

Conan Doyle was to prove one of the Strand’s most popular (and prolific) contributors. From mid-1891 until his death in 1930, there was scarcely an issue which did not contain at least one of his stories or articles. The serialisation of “The Hound of the Baskervilles” in 1901-1902 was estimated to have increased the magazine’s circulation by 30,000 — with Conan Doyle being paid £480 – £620 per episode. The Strand also published Conan Doyle’s historical fiction such as “Rodney Stone” and “The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard.” An illustrated interview with him in 1892 included a postscript by Conan Doyle’s former teacher, Joseph Bell, the supposed ‘original’ Sherlock Holmes..

The Strand’s popularity grew alongside Conan Doyle’s, and in the ensuing years it included in its pages the works of several other great authors. During its sixty year history the Strand was host to a wide array of short story fiction from writers such as W.W. Jacobs, P.G. Wodehouse, H.G. Wells, and W. Somerset Maugham. Continuing the tradition started by Doyle, the Strand also became a source for new detective fiction from authors such as Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, E.C. Bentley, Edgar Wallace, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Georges Simenon. Factual reports from distinguished contributors were regularly featured as well. A sketch Queen Victoria had drawn of of one of here children was published (with her permission) in the Strand.

Wartime hardships hit the Strand Magazine hard. Paper was rationed, and the size of the magazine had to be decreased. Costs rose, circulation fell, and the magazine never recovered. By 1950, the magazine needed a quarter of a million pounds to put it back on its feet. The owners saw no hope of raising the money, so in March 1950 the Strand was forced to stop publication.

After nearly half a century the Strand has returned. Contributors to this first issue include distinguished crime writers as well as lesser-known authors. With its distinguished tradition behind us, we hope to live up to the high standards set by the original Strand, providing a source for some of the best writing of the twenty-first century.

NEXT SUNDAY:
Check this blog next Sunday to learn the top 25 mystery novels selected by Strand Magazine editors.

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Saturday, December 30, 2017

COFFEE BEANS & BEINGS / BOLD ENOUGH TO GROW AMERICAN




FRINJ COFFEE /CALIFORNIA
Growing coffee in California is still a rare adventure.  But, an ever growing and courageous band of coffee bean farmers are giving it a shot.  One example, is Good Land Organics, an exotic fruit and coffee farm overlooking the Pacific Ocean from the foothills of Santa Barbara, California. Now called Frinj Coffee, INC. the certified organic farm was founded by Jay Ruskey in 1992, Good Land Organics is now a family affair.

Together with his wife, Kristen, their children Sean, Aiden and Kasurina, and (grand)parents Jack and Nicole, the Ruskey Family has built more than just a farm. Under the Ruskey Family, Good Land Organics has become a pioneer grower of rare and exotic fruit in California, and a leader in the evolution of California as a coffee growing region.

In 2017 Good Land Organics' coffee program grew to become Frinj Coffee, INC. The name is a nod to Good Land's ability to grow coffee on the fringe of traditional coffee producing regions. These days, Frinj leads over twenty-four partner farms in California, working to develop southern California as the first specialty coffee growing region in the continental United States.  Good Land Organics is the heart, headquarters and flagship farm of Frinj Coffee.  Check website for locations serving the Frinj brand.

BAD ASS COFFEE /HAWAII
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii was founded in 1989 with its first store on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Today, the franchise has grown to 26 locations across the United States, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and Japan.  Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii specializes in premium 100% American Grown Hawaiian Coffees, expertly-roasted, brewed and served at a fair price in a memorable store where you can be as unique as your perfect cup of coffee – that’s the Aloha Spirit!

        In San Diego, Bad Ass Coffee is located at
Plaza Rancho Penasquitos
9878 Carmel Mt. Rd. Ste. C
San Diego, CA 92129
Phone: 858.240.7077

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Info: badasscoffee.com

Friday, December 29, 2017

THE BREWSPAPER / AGAVE ADDED BEER GRABS COMPETITION MEDAL



Ryan Brooks shows off SouthNorte's recent Great American Beer Fest competition medal

SouthNorte Beer Co.
received a bronze medal in the specialty beer-style category for its Agavemente at the recent 2017 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition. Agavemente is a refreshing lager brewed with agave for a dry, crisp finish.

After fermentation, hibiscus is added to bring out a beautiful, dark pink hue, as well as a distinct fruity, tea-like flavor. “Agavemente is my play on a traditional jamaica agua fresca—it’s refreshing with just a hint of hibiscus complexity. We served it at the festival and it was awesome to see how much people were enjoying this beer,” says SouthNorte brewer Ryan Brooks.

SouthNorte is a new brewery located in San Diego, CA that specializes in craft beers inspired by the “crossroads of cultures” – the blend of San Diego’s brewing expertise and the rustic flair of Mexico. SouthNorte is currently distributed exclusively in San Diego with two year-round offerings, Sea Señor Mex Lager and No Güey IPA, available in 12oz six-packs and on draft. The company plans on expanding its packaged offerings in 2018.

About SouthNorte
From SouthNorte's website: "...Established in 2016, SouthNorte was born at the crossroads of cultures, where the blend of energies, wisdom, and talents equal more than the sum of the parts. We are brewers, makers and travelers wanting to see where we can take beer. And where it can take us. We explore the best of what each lado brings to the table. We cross borders and brew locally. We craft with an accent. We are SouthNorte. Inspired by Mexico. Hecho en San Diego. Taste the combinación..." For more information, visit SouthNorte.com.

Where to buy:

Thursday, December 28, 2017

THE CRANKY DINER / BLOWN AWAY IN OAHU


In the distance, amid the jetsom and flotsam blown in by howling winds is the Turtle Bay Resort atop the northernmost point of Oahu.     Pillartopost.org photo by Teresa Peterson

Mocking the Turtle Bay Christmas.  Shunned by family for booking Oahu’s North Shore at Yuletide.  How bad can it B-- Read on.

GUEST BLOG / By Eric Peterson, novelist, travel/wine writer and dining critic with PillartoPost.org-- When Charles Dickens penned the words “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” he must have been writing about a Christmas vacation spent with his family in Hawaii, because I felt pretty much the same way after taking my family to Oahu over the holidays. 

The piped sounds of slack-key guitars, the rum-soaked cocktails in oversized glasses, the sugar-sand beaches adorned with lava rocks and tiki torches—the fantasy of a tropical paradise is catnip to the average American who’s looking for a relaxing vacation. Is it any wonder they flock to Hawaii at Christmastime?

What these naïve vacationers fail to understand is that their pineapple drinks and overpriced hotel rooms are likely to come with nightmarish amenities: fistfights for beach chairs, first-degree sunburns, body welts from sand fleas, and daily muggings both figurative and literal.


Since we didn’t want to waste of our short vacation time traveling to an outer island, and since the best Waikiki hotels were full, I booked rooms at Turtle Bay Resort, on Oahu’s North Shore. The boxy white hotel sits prominently on a point high above the ocean, enduring hurricane-force winds that seem to blow constantly, at least at Christmastime.

The hotel was built in the early 1970s by casino developer Del Webb (no relation to Del Coronado), who hoped to introduce the island’s first casino, but the state’s gaming initiative never passed. Today, the old hotel’s wheel-and-spoke design and cavernous ground-floor lobby make it easier for roving bands of children to evade supervision by their parents.

We checked in to the hotel late in the afternoon on Christmas day. Hungry, thirsty, and irritable from our full day of travel, we made a beeline for one of Turtle Bay’s on-site restaurants, Roy’s Beach House. The small, overcrowded bar tested our patience. We finally got drink service and a sufficient amount of food to stave off a family mutiny, but we had to step on a lot of feet to make it happen. The servings were small and the prices were large. The Kahana-style tiger shrimp, Szechuan baby back pork ribs, and calamari went quickly, as did our first round of mai tais.

At 8:15 p.m. we were back at Roy’s for Christmas dinner. Despite a longstanding apprehensiveness about this particular chain—I once nearly fainted after getting a glimpse into the back of a Roy’s kitchen on an outer island—I found solace in the open-air, teakwood dining room of this attractive restaurant, which is mere steps from the breaking waves. The heavy-handed Polynesian decor might have been a Disneyland ride, but who cares? The rube reviewers of Yelp have given this Roy’s four out of five stars, which is probably about what it deserves. I drank a lot of gin martinis and wine, and the pork ribs, shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, and rack of lamb made for a happy, festive holiday dinner with the family.

The next morning, we didn’t need an alarm clock to wake us up. The hammering wind and driving rain that pelted our balcony slider were alarm enough. Teresa and I met our daughters, Caroline and Katie, and Katie’s husband, Lucas, downstairs for coffee. The rain had transformed the peaceful, would-be casino ground-floor into a school gymnasium on rainy day schedule: kids ran in every direction, malicious teenagers loitered in packs, young parents in tight-fitting athletic apparel cut through the crowd pushing double strollers, their contrary infants howling bloody murder. The line for Starbucks went forever.

Ah, Christmas in Hawaii.

Thinking weather conditions had to be better on the lee side of the island, I ordered everyone into our rented, government-black GMC Denali and asked Lucas to guide us to Waikiki Beach. Ramshackle describes much of the ride between our destinations.

The gridlock we encountered on the south shore of the island was as bad as Southern California on any given day, but at least the view from our Denali improved dramatically the closer we got to Waikiki.  My passengers stared wide-eyed at the glittering scene that unfolded around them: the sunny skies and white sandy beaches, the high-rise beachfront hotels and their opulent, open-air lobbies, the chichi stores and ritzy restaurants.

My wife, daughters, and son-in-law instantly hated me for marooning them on Oahu’s storm-swept North Shore.

The five-star Halekulani hotel in Waikiki is where our culinary fortunes improved.  Above is the legendary House without a Key restaurant.
I led our little band of travelers to the Halekulani, a five-star hotel, where we settled in for a long, leisurely lunch at the hotel’s legendary restaurant, The House Without a Key. This indoor/outdoor fine-dining venue is named after Earl Derr Biggers’s first Charlie Chan murder-mystery novel, which Biggers wrote in 1925 while staying at the Halekulani. The mai tais, coconut shrimp, tuna poke, fresh green salads, and multiple bottles of a dry white Italian wine nearly brought about my own murder—the exquisite setting and flavorful food underscored my incompetence as a travel planner. Who in his right mind books Turtle Bay at Christmas?

After lunch, we plodded single file through the sands of Waikiki Beach in our street clothes, carrying our shoes like German tourists.

In the wake of this ultimate humiliation, my family shunned me, again.

That night’s dinner reservation did little to endear me to my doleful family. Weeks before, from my comfortable desk chair on the mainland, I had booked a table for five at Turtle Bay Resort’s Kula Grill. In my haste to lock down dinner reservations, I failed to pick up on the coded phrase that is the death knell of any dinner establishment:  kids eat free. Apparently, so do boorish foreigners.

As if the squalling children and obnoxious adults weren’t bad enough, the lighting in this grill-cum-cafeteria was bright—bright enough to dig a splinter from the palm of your hand with a sewing needle, if you had to.

It was while seated at the Kula Grill, struggling to get through a half rack of mushy baby back pork ribs, that I had an out-of-body experience: The ghost of Christmas future, a Grim-Reaper-type figure dressed in a black hood and a long coat of rusty chains, led me to the dining room of another brightly lit restaurant. It was a Red Lobster or an Oliver Twist Garden. The ghost pointed with a bony hand at two seniors: Teresa and I were much older, and we were eating dinner at five o’clock. We had a coupon for a free dessert. I woke up screaming.

The next morning the sun came out, but I spoiled our kids’ first decent beach day by agreeing to meet some dear family friends for lunch in the nearby town of Haleiwa. In the bumper-to-bumper traffic, the 12-mile drive took us more than an hour.

Wait it gets better.

The small storefront restaurant Opal Thai was a highlight of our time on Oahu. We sat inside on a wooden picnic table. Opal, the owner, was more ringmaster and game-show host than restaurateur. Charismatic and funny, he entertained his patrons as he polled them for their gustatory preferences, and then without taking orders, he brought trays of food from the kitchen. The dishes Opal brought to our table were mostly shrimp and seafood. The flavors—sweet, sour, spicy, salty—left us dazzled. The green beans were remarkable.

Ever personable Opal schmoozes with all
--even the shunned.
We all groaned when Opal delivered a second wave of food, including a “chef’s special” that turned out to be skate. We left happy and stuffed. Opal saw us out with handshakes, fist bumps, and hugs for each of the ladies.

By 4 p.m. Katie, Lucas, and Caroline were back on the beach. Teresa and I soon joined them, wallowing on two chaises in the white sand under an umbrella. When the long shadow of the hotel fell across the beach, we retreated to our rooms for showers. We stuck with our one sure thing: another dinner at Roy’s. My New Zealand King Salmon was good, but what made the night memorable were the chuckleheads we met in the bar: two middle-aged brothers dead-drunk and doing Jagerbombs. One from Colorado, one from Wisconsin, they could barely stand. Their father, they said, was a Stanford football coach.

The next day, the good weather held, and we passed the time under a beach umbrella, drinking pina coladas and mai tais. We took turns ordering lunches at the takeout window at Roy’s. The kitchen was perpetually backed up. It took me more than 30 minutes to collect on an order of chicken wings, a cheeseburger, and fries. Teresa and I split the chicken wings and cheeseburger. I gave the fries to a three-year-old who was hungry to the point of tears—his mother was still waiting for the food she’d ordered some 45 minutes earlier.

Great food at Lei Lei's continued my comeback

By this time we’d discovered Lei Lei’s, Turtle Bay’s golf course grill. When we looked in on this casual restaurant, Ian, the outgoing, amiable owner—a former Chart House guy—shamed us into canceling our reservation at Turtle Bay’s celebrated Pa’akai seafood restaurant and eating at Lei Lei’s instead.

Lucky us. Ian’s menu, reminiscent of Chart House fare, was wonderful. We indulged our voracious appetites with seared ahi sashimi, escargot, calamari; Caesar salads and double-cut New York strip steaks. Lucas went for a 28 oz. bone-in cut of Lei Lei’s signature prime rib, which came out with a juicy red center and a sturdy salt and pepper crust. Katie, Lucas, and Caroline surprised Teresa and me with a bottle of Chappellet Cabernet. It was a late celebration of our wedding anniversary.

I felt unshunned, at last.

That night, while dining alfresco, we watched a band of Lord-of-the-Flies nomad kids lay siege to the golf course’s putting green. They threw sprays of golf balls into the night, they hammered sand rakes teeth-first into the fine grass, they dug deep divots around the cups with the heels of their bare feet. A recovering golfer and former golf camp counselor, I sipped my martini and bit my tongue. I didn’t want to start an international incident. Their three sets of parents spoke a language that sounded Middle Eastern. In that part of the world, apparently, parents have no truck with golf course etiquette.
Predictably, we returned to Lei Lei’s the following night. Thinking it might be fun to smoke a cigar on our last night in Hawaii, Lucas and I had detoured into the golf shop earlier in the day.

Only a reckless squanderer would pay what I paid for two Macanudos, but then how often do you get to smoke a cigar in Hawaii? On this quiet night, there were no unsupervised child mercenaries assaulting the property, and Lucas and I—son-in-law and father of the bride, respectively—enjoyed a quiet stroll around the darkened putting green as we puffed our expensive cigars. We talked golf, mostly.

The next day, at the Honolulu International Airport, our trip ended with a sharp slap in the face. The tab for our rented Denali, which we had all of five days, was $2,000. Inside the terminal, we ate cold sandwiches from a food cart. The boarding gate was mobbed with people. There were no seats to be had. Half of us fought flu symptoms.

There are only thirteen letters in the Hawaiian alphabet, and this apparently limits the number of words in their vocabulary. For example, “aloha” means both “hello” and “goodbye,”—kind of like on a small-town high school football team, where some of the players go both ways. We finally boarded the crowded airliner.

“Aloha,” I said, finding my seat, facing the ignominy of flying five hours in coach. I meant it as “goodbye.” As in: “It’ll be some time before I return to Hawaii, and never again at Christmas.”

Cue Dickens: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  I take that back.  Cue Poe: Nevermore North Shore.

ABOUT ERIC PETERSON:
Eric Peterson's debut novel, Life as a Sandwich, was a finalist in the San Diego Book Awards. His most recent book, The Dining Car, won the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Award for Popular Fiction, the San Diego Book Award Gold Medal for Best Published Contemporary Fiction, and the Readers’ Favorite Book Award Silver Medal for Literary Fiction. The story follows a former college football star who signs on as bartender and personal valet to a legendary food writer and social critic who travels the country by private railroad car.  The Dining Car is available in bookstores and the more popular online book retailing sites.


PAST CRANKY DINER COLUMNS:
The Cranky Diner appears exclusively on PillartoPost.org Daily free online Magazine.


November 9, 2017


September 28, 2017


August 24, 2017


June 29, 2017:


May 25, 2017:


April 20, 2017:


Mr. Cranky on a good day

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

FERRIS WHEEL SERIES #18 / SANTA MONICA PIER


Santa Monica, which is the western terminus of old Route 66 national highway, is also home to a classic Ferris Wheel.  Now 22 years old, the wheel is located on Santa Monica Pier, which juts out into the Pacific Ocean.

The 130-foot wheel with its 20 gondolas celebrated its 20th birthday on in 2016 by unveiling a $1 million lighting package, which included 174,000 LED lights.  The new lights boast greater color depth, higher resolution and faster "frames per second" display speed, at its seaside Pacific Park locale.

The eco-friendly, enhanced LED lighting provides 75 percent greater energy savings than most Ferris wheel’s traditional incandescent bulbs. The Pacific Wheel now presents dynamic, custom, computer-generated lighting entertainment each evening.


Other Ferris Wheel postings on Pillartopost.org
July 20, 2016—Staten Island, New York
August 17, 2016—Las Vegas
September 21, 2016—Tokyo, Japan
October 19, 2016—Nanchang, China
November 9, 2016—Dubai
December 14, 2016—Melbourne
January 11, 2017—London Eye
February 7, 2017—Chicago
March 15, 2017—Singapore
April 4, 2017--Vienna
May—Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
June 14, 2017—Helsinki, Finland
July 26, 2017—Orlando, Florida
August 23, 2017—Tianjin Eye, China
September 13, 2017—Paris, France
October 25, 2017—Dallas, Texas
November 28, 2017, Osaka, Japan
December 27, 2017, Santa Monica, California


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